Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Environmental Stewardship Scheme

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many claims for payment for work under the Higher Level Stewardship scheme which took place in (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17 are unresolved; and whether he has set a target date for the resolution of those claims.

George Eustice: Holders of Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements receive two payments: an advance and a final payment. 1,111 (20%) of HLS agreements are still to receive their final payment for 2016. 6,774 (52%) of HLS agreements are still to receive a payment for 2017. There is no set deadline for Environmental Stewardship payments. Natural England is focused on making the payments and we are keeping farming groups regularly updated on progress.

Dairy Farming: Customs Unions

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of leaving the EU Customs Union on (a) the dairy sector and (b) UK-EU trade in dairy products.

George Eustice: As part of our preparations to leave the EU, we are in the process of carrying out a rigorous programme of analytical work that will contribute to our understanding of how leaving the EU will affect the UK’s dairy sector. Part of that programme has included modelling work co-funded between the four UK agricultural departments. In August 2017 FAPRI-UK published this analysis in the report “Impacts of Alternative post-brexit trade agreements on UK agriculture: sector analyses using the FAPRI-UK model”. It considers the impact of different trading scenarios on many commodity sectors, including the UK milk and dairy sector. The full report is available on agri-food and biosciences institute website.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Energy: Meters

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMETS2 meters (a) have been installed and (b) are operational.

Claire Perry: Holding answer received on 26 March 2018



The rollout of smart meters is making good progress, with nearly 440,000 meters being installed every month and a total of 10 million meters already operating as of 31 December 2017. As of the end of January 2018, industry information showed there were around 450 SMETS2 meters connected to the DCC system. Most of these were being operated in test conditions and around 80 had been installed in the live environment.

Boating: Finance

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of Government funding for Ben Ainslie’s sailing team; what assessment was made (a) before and (b) after that expenditure of its cost-effectiveness; what return was expected from that investment; and whether further funding will be allocated to the team.

Andrew Griffiths: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 04 April 2018.The correct answer should have been:

In 2014 Government agreed up to £7.5 million funding to support Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team and their proposal to be based on the Camber in Portsmouth. Details of this funding agreement have previously been released and are publicly available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-approves-75-million-for-sir-ben-ainslie-project-to-boost-portsmouthNo further funding to the team is currently planned.  In 2014, under the Coalition Government, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport agreed a funding package of up to £7.5 million to support Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team and their proposal to base their permanent headquarters on the Camber in Portsmouth. This was announced by the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Rt hon Member for Twickenham (Sir Vince Cable). This funding ensured the racing team’s commitment to basing their operations in Portsmouth for a minimum of 12 years to support three America’s Cup cycles, which in turn enabled economic benefits for the city’s marine and maritime sector. It also helped support community engagement and sailing participation projects in collaboration with Sport England. The benefits arising from this investment extended beyond the sailing team. They included direct economic benefits from the generation of jobs and apprenticeships, together with the up-skilling of workers in the Solent area, the setting up of a Technical Innovation Group to help feed the innovations in applied technology developed by BAR into the marine industry, engagement with schools and higher education institutions, engagement with the local supply chain, and the setting up of a visitors’ centre. Published details of this funding agreement are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-approves-75-million-for-sir-ben-ainslie-project-to-boost-portsmouth  No further funding to the team is currently planned.

Andrew Griffiths: In 2014 Government agreed up to £7.5 million funding to support Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team and their proposal to be based on the Camber in Portsmouth. Details of this funding agreement have previously been released and are publicly available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-approves-75-million-for-sir-ben-ainslie-project-to-boost-portsmouthNo further funding to the team is currently planned.  In 2014, under the Coalition Government, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport agreed a funding package of up to £7.5 million to support Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team and their proposal to base their permanent headquarters on the Camber in Portsmouth. This was announced by the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Rt hon Member for Twickenham (Sir Vince Cable). This funding ensured the racing team’s commitment to basing their operations in Portsmouth for a minimum of 12 years to support three America’s Cup cycles, which in turn enabled economic benefits for the city’s marine and maritime sector. It also helped support community engagement and sailing participation projects in collaboration with Sport England. The benefits arising from this investment extended beyond the sailing team. They included direct economic benefits from the generation of jobs and apprenticeships, together with the up-skilling of workers in the Solent area, the setting up of a Technical Innovation Group to help feed the innovations in applied technology developed by BAR into the marine industry, engagement with schools and higher education institutions, engagement with the local supply chain, and the setting up of a visitors’ centre. Published details of this funding agreement are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-approves-75-million-for-sir-ben-ainslie-project-to-boost-portsmouth  No further funding to the team is currently planned.

EU Energy Policy

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with (a) the UK’s European Commissioner and (b) the European Commissioner for Climate Action & Energy, on the Energy Package being considered in Trilogues by the European Union.

Claire Perry: My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State met with Vice President Šefčovič on 8 March to discuss a range of matters related to the EU Energy Union, including the Clean Energy Package proposals. He has had no meetings on this with either Commissioner King or Commissioner Cañete.

EU Energy Policy

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to support at the European Council for the Energy Union the EU-level (a) 35 per cent renewable energy and (b) 35 per cent energy efficiency target.

Claire Perry: These dossiers are now under discussion between the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament, where the UK approach will be to support balanced texts in line with the Council General Approaches, supporting achievement of EU objectives while leaving Member States flexibility to decarbonise in the most cost-effective manner.

Fracking

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what projection he has made of the contribution of gas fracking to the UK’s energy mix by (a) 2025 and (b) 2030.

Claire Perry: In October 2017, the Government published a report summarising gas security, including consideration of the role of shale gas, over the next 20 years, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gas-security-of-supply-strategic-assessment-and-review

Women and Equalities

Bullying

Chris Elmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, what comparative assessment she has made of the difference in the reported level of in-person bullying against BAME people and the reported level against non-BAME people.

Victoria Atkins: The Equality Act 2010 prohibits certain forms of conduct – including harassment – in employment and the provision of goods, services and public functions. Harassment is defined as unwanted conduct related to someone’s protected characteristics and which has the purpose or effect of violating their dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. However, “bullying” is not a term used in the Act, and incidents of “bullying” are not recorded. The Equality Advisory and Support Service, a Government-sponsored helpline that offers free advice and support to people who feel that they have been victims of unlawful discrimination, records and makes available statistics on all the customer contacts that it receives. Between 1 October 2016 - when the current service provider took over running the contract - and 28 February 2018, the Service recorded 1443 customer contacts concerning harassment across all the protected characteristics covered by the Act, 310 (21%) of which were related to race.

Equal Pay: BBC

Stella Creasy: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to her oral contribution of 22 February 2018, Official Report, column 322, what the outcome was of her discussions with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on protecting the freedom of women at the BBC to discuss equal pay.

Victoria Atkins: The Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries and I will discuss pay equality with the BBC. We are clear that as a public service broadcaster funded by the license fee, the BBC has a responsibility to set an example on pay and other equality measures in the workplace. Getting this right is important for licence-payers as well as all the talented women who work for the BBC.